


Fire and Ashes

by Julia_Fractal



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Battle of King's Landing, Canon-Typical Violence, Death, Drabble, Episode Tag, F/M, Game of Thrones S08E05, Gen, Probably Won't be Canon-Compliant After the Finale, Spoilers, battle aftermath
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-13
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2020-03-02 14:12:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18812557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Julia_Fractal/pseuds/Julia_Fractal
Summary: *~*~*Arya Stark walks through the aftermath of the Battle of King’s Landing, adding a brand new name to her List.*~*~*





	Fire and Ashes

**Author's Note:**

> SPOILER warning for Game of Thrones S08E05. I wrote this immediately after watching the episode as a way to process my feelings.

* * *

  
There was no white horse waiting for her at the end of the lane.  
  
Instead, Arya Stark walked out of King’s Landing on her own two bloodied feet.Drogon’s fires had turned the cobblestone streets hot as an oven, and even good Northern leather couldn’t withstand the heat.  
  
A few feet away, the mother who’d saved her from being trampled was now a pile of ash, still protectively wrapped around her equally dead daughter.Arya hadn’t learned their names, and now she never would.  
  
A single sweep of dragon fire had turned most of the crowd into charred corpses, but some weren’t so lucky.A man lunged at her as she passed, “Please, no more!Please let it end!”His lips and most of his face had melted, but his voice was still loud and strong.Arya granted his wish with a stab to the heart, then walked on.  
  
King’s Landing had never been so quiet.  
  
Ash rained down all around her like the first snow of winter.  Idly Arya wondered how many dead people made up each flake of soot on her hair and clothes, how many she took in with each passing breath.  
  
Arya has seen Death wear many faces, yet somehow she’d never expected this.She knew the woman as a guest at Winterfell’s table.A silver-haired beauty who had captured her brother’s heart.A queen who had fought the armies of the dead by their side, and risked her own life to hold back the Long Night.  
  
Yet in a single day she had razed King’s Landing, just so she could rule over the rubble and ashes.  
  
_Joffrey, Cersei, Illyn Payne, The Red Woman, Ser Meryn Trant, The Hound…_ Once there had been many names on her list.Most were dead, a few had been removed by her own hand.Now all the old names were wiped away to make room for one new addition: _Daenerys Targaryen, First of Her Name._  
  
Her reign may have begun today in an inferno of dragon fire, but Arya vowed to end it with blood and steel.

* * *

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, comments and kudos bring out my happy dance :)


End file.
